U.S. men blown out in bronze medal game by Finland

After allowing two goals early in the second period, the United
States could never recover, falling by a score of 5-0 in the bronze
medal game to Finland.

The Americans seemed to pick up right where they left off in
their 1-0 loss to Canada, again failing to generate offense. Bruins
netminder Tuukka Rask stopped all 27 shots he faced, only five of
which came in a third period that began with the Americans trailing
by just two.

Teemu Selanne opened the scoring with what proved to be the
game-winner 1:27 into the middle frame, and Jussi Jokinen made it
2-0 just 11 seconds later, prompting a timeout by U.S. coach Dan
Bylsma.

The move seemed to wake up his squad for the time being, but the
Americans couldn't cut the lead in half, including on Patrick
Kane's second penalty shot of the contest at the 6:24 mark of the
second period.

"I think through four games in this tournament, our team
had played very well, had some good victories," Bylsma told
NHL.com. "I think the fifth game (against Canada)
took a lot out of us, took a lot out of us emotionally. Getting
back to that [level] in this game was not there for us."

Finland tacked on three goals in the third, including the
43-year-old Selanne's second of the night.

"We believed that we can win the bronze," said
Selanne. "I'm so proud of my guys. We were talking before the game:
'Let's play for ourselves. We deserve a great ending.' And we got
that. Nobody really believed in us, but we did."

Pride was an emotion the dejected U.S. players certainly weren't
feeling after two disheartening efforts to close out the
tournament.

"Coming into the final round I thought we were playing well,"
said team captain Zach Parise. "I'm kind of embarrassed where we're
at now."

While gold was the ultimate goal for a U.S. squad that nabbed
silver in 2010 in Vancouver, going home empty-handed is a tough
pill to swallow.

"It feels like you played this tournament for nothing," Blake
Wheeler said. "You win that quarterfinal game, you get excited
because you know you're going to play for a medal and you come away
with nothing. Not much to say, just disappointing; sour I guess. A
medal's a medal and it's going to be with you forever, and we
couldn't come up with one and that's the part that's most
frustrating."

Jonathan Quick (Hamden, Conn.), who stood on his head with a
36-save performance the day prior against Canada, finished with 24
saves on 29 shots. Fellow New Englanders John Carlson (Marlborough,
Mass.) and Max Pacioretty each finished with an even plus-minus
rating and one shot on goal in the blowout loss.